Long live redundancy

I laughed at Rachel Dugdale’s letter about redundant labels(Letters, 30 January, p 50).
I can see, however, a possible function for the apparently
otiose label “Please remove this label before use”.

Its presence distinguishes those units which have not been used from those
which have, such as returns (for whatever reason) from customers, which may have
to be examined for defects and/or repackaged before resale. In other words, it
is there (or not) as a guide for warehouse staff.

Common sense tells me that commercial firms are not likely to waste money on
utter superfluities.